Mason, Lowell, 1792-1872

American composer and music educator.

Lowell Mason (1792-1872), musical educator and hymn writer, was born in Medfield, Massachusetts. In 1812 he came to Savannah as a bank clerk. In Savannah, he taught singing, and was the organist and Sunday School teacher for the Independent Presbyterian Church. He left Savannah in 1827. With F.L. Abel he published The Boston Handel and Haydn Society's Collection of Church Music (1822), which was republished in many later editions.

American music educator, composer, anthologist, and conductor.

Composer, educator.

Mason Lowell was born in Medfield, Massachusetts. He had been a church organist/choir director when he published a successful hymn collection in 1822, some of its melodies adopted from classical composers. In 1832 he co-founded the Boston Academy of Music, which gave instruction to adults and children. A pedagogue of great influence and importance for American music, he remained a prolific arranger and composer of hymns.

Lowell Mason, who has been called as "the father of American Church music," was born in Medfield, Massachusetts on 8 January 1792. He came from a musical family, and as a boy he played a wide variety of instruments and attended singing schools. By the age of 16, he was directing his own church choir.

From 1813 to 1827, he lived in Savannah, Georgia, where worked as a businessman and church musician, and studied music with Frederick Abel. In 1822 Mason published a compilation of hymns from a variety of sources under the title The Boston Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church Music . It proved to be a resounding success, and went through some 22 editions. In the ensuing decades, Mason would publish a vast amount of music, the majority of it intended for practical use in churches and schools. In addition to his work as an editor and arranger, Mason composed many hymns of his own, including "Nearer, My God to Thee," "My Faith Looks Up to Thee," and "From Greenland's Icy Mountains."

In 1827 Mason moved to Boston, where he held a series of increasingly prominent positions as a church musician, and became president of the Boston Handel and Haydn Society. He also developed an extraordinary reputation as a music educator. Beginning as a Sunday school teacher, Mason taught in private schools, established the Boston Academy of Music, organized teacher training conventions, and published numerous pedagogical works. A pioneering advocate for the place of music in public education, he served as superintendent of music in the Boston school system from 1837 to 1851.

In 1837 and again in 1851-1853, Mason traveled to Europe, where he met musicians and educators, delivered lectures, and purchased large numbers of books, scores, and manuscripts, including the library of the German organist J.C.H. Rinck.

In 1854 Mason settled in Orange, New Jersey, where he died on August 11, 1872. The Mason name remained a prominent part of the American musical scene, however, thanks to his sons Daniel Gregory and Lowell (both music publishers), his son William (a pianist), his son Henry (founder of the Mason & Hamlin piano manufacturing company), and his grandson Daniel Gregory (a composer and professor at Columbia University).

Lowell Mason, born in Medfield, Massachusetts, began his musical training in a singing school under the direction of Amos Albee, compiler of The Norfolk Collection of Sacred Harmony and studied music with Oliver Shaw, a blind composer of hymn tunes and ballads. In addition to learning several instruments, he began directing his church choir and the local Medfield band at the age of 16.

After moving to Savannah, Georgia, Mason continued his leadership role as a superintendent of the Sunday school of the Independent Presbyterian Church, later becoming the choir director and organist. In addition to leading many singing schools and concerts, he also began studying harmony and composition with German-born musician Frederick L. Abel. It was under his direction that Mason began composing hymn tunes and anthems.

His success as choirmaster and author brought him to Boston, where he began to supervise music in three Congregational churches and also served as choirmaster and organist. Along with George James Webb, Mason established the Boston Academy of Music in order to promote music education on a larger scale. In addition to establishing curricular music in American public schools and teacher training in music, he is also known for the success of his compositions and arrangements of hymn tunes and tune books. These include his compilation of hymns in the collection of melodies, The Boston Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church Music . Some of his other publications, mostly written for church or school, include The Juvenile Psalmist, The Juvenile Lyre, and The Manual of the Boston Academy of Music .